12: Chapter 12 Spirit Array Defense, An Unexpected Strategy

Clack—

The passage gate slammed shut behind him, sealing away the wind and the scent of blood.

Chen Wuwang stepped into the core chamber of the spiritual array. Beneath his feet was a bronze Formation Plate etched with runes, its central hub pulsing with a faint dark-red light like a beating heart.

He didn't look around or touch any control levers. He raised his right hand and ran a fingertip across his brow; a line of blood seeped out, flowing along his palm lines into the groove of the array's eye.

"Forming the seal."

As he spoke, his hands moved like lightning.

Zi-Wu Lock, Xun-Li Lead, Zhen-Dui Reverse—he executed three Restriction hand seals in one breath, his knuckles leaving afterimages.

He recklessly poured his Nascent Soul Peak spiritual energy into the array hub. The Formation Plate hummed, its surface runes turning from gray to gold, then from gold to black, as if the underlying protocols were being forcibly tampered with by some power.

His mechanical prosthetic eye activated automatically, a stream of data flowing across his vision: Defense protocol running... Energy threshold stable... Reverse diversion module inactive...

"Open for me!"

He growled, his left hand slamming into a hidden groove at the edge of the array base. There shouldn't have been anything there; it was an interface he had carved out with a titanium alloy dagger the night before.

A piercing sound of metal grinding rang out, and a vibration of interlocking gears came from deep within the Formation Plate. A rusted auxiliary circuit slowly slid out, connecting to the spiritual energy loop he had pre-installed.

Reverse diversion, activate.

The entire array shuddered violently, as if it had been kicked from behind.

The pale golden light screen that originally protected the mountain gate suddenly contracted, then collapsed inward into a swirling black hole. The green clouds in the sky continued to approach, and the vanguard of the insect swarm had already rushed to within two miles. The sound of their wings was like a rainstorm hitting sheet metal, setting teeth on edge.

But at that very moment—

"BOOM!!!"

The array's eye erupted with blinding white light. Electricity poured back like a waterfall, surging from the ground into the sky, spraying in reverse along the original defense pathways.

The first arc of lightning struck thirty yards outside the mountain gate. The ground exploded into a charred crack, and three flying insects were instantly carbonized, their corpses spiraling down.

The second and third followed immediately, like someone had strung a high-voltage power grid across the sky, crackling and dense as rain.

The insect swarm's charge formation was instantly disrupted. Although the shells of those low-tier Gold-Eating Insects were hard, they couldn't withstand this level of spiritual energy overload. Antennae snapped, wings melted, and they fell in massive swathes.

Chen Wuwang stood on the high platform at the center of the array, his hands still maintaining the hand seal. His fingertips were numb, and the skin between his thumb and forefinger had split.

He didn't blink, staring intently at the thermal imaging from his mechanical eye: the dense red dots were rapidly decreasing, and the outer insect swarm was beginning to scatter. A few high-tier flying insects tried to bypass the minefield for a low-altitude raid, but they were torn to shreds by stray arcs of electricity as soon as they approached the protective wall.

"Impressive, they actually dare to keep charging." He sneered, his mouth twitching slightly. "Then let's add some more spice."

With a thought from his Divine Sense, his spiritual energy split into three streams, injecting into the East, South, and West energy storage nodes. These were "Thunderstorm Storage Pools" he had secretly installed earlier, operating similarly to a capacitor bank on Earth, capable of converting and storing the enemy's Spiritual Pressure that hit the array walls, then releasing it all at once.

Now, it's time to pay the debt.

"Fire!"

Three dull thuds exploded almost simultaneously. Three ball lightnings rose from the corners of the array, tracing eerie arcs before colliding and bursting in mid-air.

A true spiritual energy rainstorm poured down, each bolt precisely locking onto the densest areas of the swarm. They exploded upon impact, turning the area into a sea of fire.

The pile of corpses began to stack high.

Green blood mixed with the stench of burning rose, making one nauseous. Severed limbs and broken wings littered the ground. Some weren't entirely dead, twitching and crawling on the ground only to be crushed into pulp by subsequent lightning strikes.

The unique mental shrieks of the Zerg rose and fell; it was the wail of their collective consciousness suffering heavy damage.

Chen Wuwang took a breath, the veins on his temples throbbing. Forty percent of his spiritual energy was exhausted, but his eyes didn't waver; instead, they grew brighter.

"Is that all?" he whispered, his voice low but piercing through the thunder. "Thirty thousand fodder think they can take my mineral vein? Zerg Broodmother, you're getting old."

His mechanical eye switched to spectrum analysis mode, scanning for residual signals on the battlefield.

The results popped up quickly: No high-tier command units detected; no mental link hub fluctuations; all actions were basic tactical coordination—a typical low-intelligence swarm charge.

It wasn't a probe.

It was contempt.

He suddenly burst out laughing, his shoulders shaking slightly as if he had heard something absurd. The laughter was short and ended abruptly.

"Fine then." He wiped the sweat and blood from his face and raised his hand again, preparing to initiate the second wave of clearing.

Just then, an unusual vibration came from the Formation Plate.

It wasn't from an external attack, but an internal feedback. A faint blue light seeped from the bottom of the main hub, slowly climbing along the cracks in the runes.

That was the "Spiritual Energy Memory Chip" he had implanted earlier responding to battlefield data, automatically recording the parameters of this counterattack for future optimization.

His eyes twitched slightly; he ignored the light.

His right hand still steadily held the hand seal, while his left hand quietly reached for the dagger at his waist, his thumb giving the hilt a gentle push.

A grain-sized metal piece slid into his finger gap—this was his self-made "Spiritual Array Quick-Release Plugin," which could manually restart the core protocol in case the System crashed.

Before he could act, it suddenly went quiet outside for a moment.

It wasn't total silence, but rather the insect shrieks cut off all at once, as if every individual had received a retreat order at the same time. The remaining flying insects turned and fled, not even collecting their companions' corpses, scrambling to escape toward the ground fissures.

Chen Wuwang didn't pursue.

He knew a swarm of this scale wouldn't retreat for no reason. Either the losses exceeded their tolerance threshold, or... something bigger was coming.

He slowly withdrew his stance, returning his palms to his dantian. The blood-colored spiritual runes faded from his eyes, and his breathing gradually stabilized. He had been standing for too long, and his legs were a bit stiff, but he didn't move, only looking down at his feet.

The runes on the Formation Plate had returned to normal, with only a few scorch marks proving what had just happened.

A faint smell of ozone still lingered in the air, mixed with the scent of burnt meat, making his stomach churn.

He looked up, gazing into the Void Realm.

The clouds were still green but no longer churning. The distant ridgeline was clearly visible, as sharp as if cut by a knife.

"Zerg Broodmother," he spoke, his voice not loud but possessing a penetrating power, as if it could pierce heaven and earth. "Is this all you've got?"

As his voice fell, the head of the last struggling flying insect suddenly exploded, black sludge splattering everywhere.

He stood still, the residual spiritual light on his right hand flickering slightly like an ember that hadn't quite gone out.

The mechanical eye in his left socket was automatically repairing overload damage, the cracks on the lens surface slowly closing with a very faint "sizzle."

Outside the mountain gate, a mountain of corpses and a sea of blood.

Inside the mountain gate, a man stood alone.

He knew the battle wasn't over.

The mineral vein was exposed; everyone would be watching. This wave of the swarm was too organized, not like natural behavior, but rather like someone was pushing from behind. The System hadn't given any new instructions today, but that didn't mean it was safe.

He didn't move because he couldn't.

The array's eye hadn't cooled down yet, and a second wave of impact could come at any time. He had to stay here until he confirmed the threat was gone.

The wind swept ashes across the high platform, blowing his silver-white ponytail.

The three old scars on his right cheek throbbed with heat, as if reminding him of that night three years ago—the ruins, the crying, the severed limbs, and the child in his arms clutching half a wooden sword.

It's different now.

This time, he stood atop the array's eye and personally repelled the enemy.

He slowly raised his hand, looked at the still-bleeding wound on his fingertip, and suddenly smiled.

"No matter how many come, I'll kill them all."

Footsteps came from the passage entrance, very light; it should be the Patrol Team starting to clear the perimeter. He didn't look back, nor did he make a sound.

At this moment, he was still in control.

His feet hadn't left the array's eye, and the battle was decided.

Over at the Artifact Refining Workshop, Uncle Tiezhu should almost be finished melting the first batch of mecha parts.

A ten-minute walk would be just in time to connect with the next deployment.

He stood there, like a monument that would never fall.